Still Into You
by hynotistic
Summary: Hope Thompson, Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski have been through a lot their sophomore year and they needed a break from supernatural world. That's what they had summer break for but now they start their junior year and with alpha pack watching their every move, they had to prepare themselves for new battle. It was way harder especially with Hope's feelings for Scott never faded.
1. 00 is it real?

**CHAPTER ZERO ; IS THIS REAL?**

'' _Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness._ _''_

— _Yousuf Karsh_

 **. . .**

She looked at him and it felt like everything crumbled inside of her. She didn't regret it. She felt good. In a way it was.

But she did feel sorry. Sorry for seeing him. Right there, right now. When she looked at him, it broke her heart. She wanted to scream at the world, she wanted to scream at her body to wake up.

Seeing someone and not being able to utter a word or move a finger, it was a horrible feeling, wasn't it? Well, that's how Hope felt like anyways as she looked at Scott and his reaction sure as hell wasn't making her feel better. But there was nothing she could do now. What's done is done, there's no turning back.

Looking back, her old self would've yelled at her and made a remark how much she acted like Barry and it had to stop. The thought of it made the corner of her lips to twitch upwards and her eyes roam around his face.

But as she did so, all that she could think of was,

Is this real? Or just a strange and twisted dream?

 **. . .**

 **not edited.**

 **confused? good! im so happy!**

 **im so ready for this story and i love hope so freaking much. and dont get me started on her future relationship with scott cause my heart will explode from cuteness.**


	2. 01 a car, a torch, a death

_**15 months ago** _

* * *

"This might be your dumbest idea ever — no offence." Hope points out.

"For once, She's right." Stiles agrees and scratches the back of his head.

"Oh, shut up." The girl rolls her eyes and pushes Stiles slightly off his balance, making the boy trip over his feet and laugh under his breath.

"Guys! I want this." Scott sighs frustratingly at both of his best friends. Hope and Stiles share annoyed look. "I-I need this for myself."

"You mean, getting shot with arrows is not enough, so getting stabbed with needles gazillion times will do the job." The brunette raises a brow at her best friend and rests her hand on the strip of her chocolate brown satchel bag. Walking on the sidelines, Stiles turns to a bit to his left side and opens both of his arms towards Hope to prove that she had a point. "Great thinking, dude." The brunette pats Scott's shoulder and narrows her eyes.

Hope held back the urge to roll her eyes and mutter colorful words under her breath. She just never understood why Scott needed to get a tattoo while still being a minor. Usually that's the age when teenagers don't think and end up doing some weird stuff or get each other in trouble. Take Hope, for example. She's the definition of trouble but in her defense she's just unique from the others.

So when Scott walked in her room last week, while in the middle of playing Fallout 4 with Stiles, he announced to both of his friends about getting a tattoo, Hope burst out laughing. Stiles? He on the other hand just stared at Scott in pure horror, something the girl hasn't seen in a while. She actually thought he was joking, she really did. That was until there was deadpan expression plastered all over Scott's features. Then she realised Scott actually wasn't joking and he actually _did_ want a permanent tattoo. Hell, even Hope tried to get him one of those temporary tattoos just so he knew what he was getting himself into. He only said no to temporary tattoos due to the fact they were Disney Princesses temporary tattoos.

The trio stopped right in front of the tattoo salon, it was either now or never, Hope picked never but of course she didn't have a vote in this, so she said nothing. The girl bit the inside of her cheek and swayed back and forth. She glanced at Stiles on her right and then at Scott on her left, none of them met her halfway and she sighs.

"Okay, let's do this then." Stiles mutters, steps forwards and pushes the door to open but instead he walked right into the glass door. His brows crease together in confusion that is until he notices the small sign that says _'pull'._ He scratches the back of his head and looks around, to make sure no one saw any of that, but no one did. He also didn't hear both of his best friends snicker at him or actually hear Hope making a joke about him. So he turns around to face them, only to find Scott and Hope looking at each other with no words exchanging. He waves his hand back at the salon, "We should go and tell you booked a tattoo before they close." They both didn't even flinch at the sound of his voice , "Uhm – yeah, I'll just go inside."

As Stiles walked in, Hope crosses arms over her chest and looks down at her worn out vans, "Are you sure you want this? I mean it's your body, you can do whatever the hell you want with it – It's just – I don't know, I don't want you to regret it afterwards, that's all." She admits as she tries to not make an eye contact with Scott.

"Ellie," He puts both of his hands on her shoulders in attempt to stop her rambling but she only tenses under his touch, not that he noticed. Hope still looks up at him, "It's okay, I thought this through – a lot. I've been wanting it for a while, so don't worry."

He gives her shoulders a little ensuring squeeze and a warm smile that she returned. She steps out of his hold, trying to play it off cool as she laughs and makes her way up the stairs right where Stiles was just few minutes ago. "Well, then, _dude._ Let's get you needled up."

"Okay, now you're just making it sound weird." Scott points out as he chuckles and shakes his head. Hope only shrugs her shoulders and walks in the tattoo salon with Scott following her after.

As they entered the parlour , they were met with Stiles standing behind the woman which Hope only assumed was a customer before them, she had dark raven hair, white crop top with worn out jeans. She couldn't see her face but she could smell her sweet vanilla perfume as she approached Stiles. The unknown girl turns around to leave, not until making an eye contact with Hope. She had no idea how to react or what to say, so she gave the girl a small smile, which she returned. As the girl walks past the brunette, she still has her eyes on the mystery girl but this time the girl had a small smirk tugging on her lips which only left the teenager puzzled.

Hope closes her eyes for a brief moment and shakes her head. That for sure was weird as hell, she didn't feel uncomfortable nor she felt good about the moment she had with the mystery girl. It was somehow in between but she brushed it off like it was nothing, besides she was in a tattoo salon in downtown of Beacon Hills. When it hits 6 in the evening and she's outside of her house, she trusts no one and according to her avengers watch, it was half six so yup not trusting anyone.

She turns to Scott as the guy behind the till asks for his ID to prove he's an adult. She and Stiles glance at each other nervously as Scott gives his ID to the man – well, the fake ID anyways, that Hope may or may not has made herself and yes she was in deed proud. See Scott's mom couldn't come with them and because Scott still counts as minor, he needed legal guardian's or parent's approval and that well... didn't turn out so great. However, Scott really wanted the tattoo so she made the fake ID for him that said he just turned eighteen. It was plausible, he did look like an adult and he didn't have a baby face so everything was good. Just some teenagers doing some illegal things. Nothing special.

The guy behind the till, gave Scott a sheet of paper and a pen to fill out information that was needed about him. As Scott was filling out his details, Hope sits down in a cushion chair and picks up an album that she assumes was all of tattoos the artist has done on people. As she was going through pages, nothing really stood out for her, there was a girl that had a full sleeve covered with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, if that counts. She definitely approves of that.

When she was done going through pages, she places the album back down on the coffee table and leans back in her chair. The girl glances at Scott to only see him giving back the form to the tattoo artist and making his way to the chair where Hope only assumes that's where he will get his tattoo done. She stood up and made her way next to Stiles who found another album but this time it was just sketches of drawings. She raises her brow, wondering how many albums did the guy really have. One had just photos of the finished touch, now there's another one only for sketches. Did they have collection of albums or something? If so, she really didn't want to know.

"Boy," The artist states sarcastically as he looks down at the wrinkled paper, gaining Hope's attention, " It's a good thing you drew me a picture."

She looks behind her shoulder right as Scott grins towards the tattoo artist in response. _He's a dork,_ Hope thinks to herself.

She hisses in pain as she was met with a jab in the side with an elbow by Stiles. She shot him glare daggers but he wasn't paying attention to her whatsoever, instead he was pointing at the drawing. Hope yanks the book off from him and looks down at the page and she sees a sketch of a lizard creature that looked suspiciously like the Kanima. A huge grin forms on her lips as she looks up and makes an eye contact with Stiles. "This seems about right." She titters.

"Maybe this will be a good looking tattoo on him, better than what he probably has planned to get." He whispers and she chokes back a laugh at Stiles' comment. Her best friend grabs the album from her hands and spins around, "Hey, Scott! – Sure you don't want something like this?" The album that was in her hands just few seconds ago was turned around for Scott to see. Just like expected Scott didn't find any of that funny, giving both of his friends a pointed look. "Too soon? Mmh–kay."

"Give me that!" She takes the album from Stiles' hands again and whispers, "Immature, tsk tsk tsk." She shakes her head and turns few pages back as she gets to the sketch she was looking for. Stiles shoots her bewildered look, cause as he recalls just a moment ago, she was enjoying this as much as he was. That was until he saw the drawing and his hand shots to his mouth, holding back a laugh. "This– ," She turns the sketch for Scott to see and it was a wolf howling under a full moon on a the edge of a cliff. "This is very meaningful and powerful tattoo. Like poof, mind blowing. "

"Guys, give me a break." Scott lets out a huff. They didn't even hear what he had to say, the two teens in front of him were just laughing like it was the most funniest thing they have said or done. Eventually, they both murmured a quick 'sorry' to him and calm down as Scott didn't find of any of that slightly amusing.

"I don't know,man. You sure about this?" Stiles starts off after a moment, stepping closer to Scott, "These things are pretty permanent, you know?"

Hope watches as the tattoo artist prepares the inks and ink machine or whatever they are supposed to be. She notices the wrinkled paper from earlier and takes a glance at it, as Scott stubbornly states, "I'm not changing my mind."

On the paper she saw two horrible coloured and drawn bands. Just plain two bands. Is Scott seriously going to get that tattooed on his body? Permanently?! Oh hell no. "Wait – Hold up. Why Two black bands?" She questions him as she crosses arms over her chest.

"I just like it." Scott shrugs, still not giving a full reason as of why.

"Okay but don't you think your first tattoo should have some sort of meaning, you know or something?" Stiles points out as he notices the same paper that Hope was looking at few seconds ago. Hope nods her head in agreement with Stiles.

"Getting a tattoo means something." Scott tries to argue and a humourless laugh escapes Hope's lips. She knew Scott and she would bet all her money on him not telling the full story. She was his best friend and when she last time checked the rules of her best friends guide book, best friends are supposed to tell each other everything and Scott. Well he was breaking those rules as of now.

"I don't think that's –"

"He's right." The tattoo artist interjects, "Tattooing goes back thousands of years. The Tahitian word _tatau_ means leave a mark. Like a rite of passage."

"Oh wow, no wonder why it's permanent then." Hope mumbles under her breath sarcastically.

"Yeah, you see?" Scott slightly extends his arm out towards the guy, " He gets it."

"He's covered in tattoos, Scott." Stiles deadpans and crosses his arms over his chest just like Hope did. "Literally."

"Okay, you ready?" The guy ignores Stiles' comment as he finishes cleaning Scott's bicep and picks up the ink gun, "You, uhm, ain't got a problem with needles, do ya?"

Scott stiffly rolls back his shoulders, not making eye contact with anyone, "Nope."

Stiles on the other hand leans in to see more of it and scratches his chin, " I tend to get a little squeamish though so –"

And then there was a loud thud.

* * *

Scott opens the door for Hope and she jumps in backseat of Stiles' jeep. Scott climbs in and sits down in passenger's seat while Stiles finds himself sitting in the driver's seat with one hand holding an ice pack against the back of his head after passing out.

It took them surprisingly only forty minutes for Scott's tattoo to be done. Yet Hope still couldn't believe he got two bands tattooed on his bicep. Two plain bands. And here Hope thought she was the one making bad decisions all the time, she guess not. Don't get her wrong, she was okay with Scott getting a tattoo (kind of), but she was expecting something more cool and meaningful. Not _that_.

"You okay?" Stiles asks, noticing Scott's look on the face lacing with confusion as he examines his bicep wrapping in bandage.

"It kinda burns." Scott stiffly states. Hope raises an eyebrow.

"Did I not tell you about needles versus arrows?" The teen girl chuckles.

"Yeah," Stiles nods his head, agreeing with Hope, "You just had your skin stabbed around hundreds of thousands of times by a needle."

"Yeah but I don't think it's supposed to feel this way," Scott hisses under his breath in pain. He sits up straight in his seat and quickly glances at his friends in panic. "Oh no, it's definitely not supposed to feel this way." He groans in pain, making the girl starts to feel sense of worry. "I have to get this off!"

Without a second thought, he reaches out for the bandage, trying to take it off and Hope's eyes grow wide. "What?! No, no, no. Don't!"

The last thing she wants to see is infected tattoo that probably looked like straight out of horror movie, she was living a life as her nightmare. She wants to get a goodnight sleep before her first day as a junior. This? This wouldn't help. Nope, definitely not.

Both, Hope and Stiles turn away from their best friend, in fear of whatever flesh-eating bacteria was underneath the bandage. Scott on the the other hand had a mixture of shock and distress lacing his features. The area that once was covered with two black inked bands was now slowly fading away until his bicep was clear as if it wasn't there in the first place.

"It healed." Scott murmurs.

Hope opens her eyes to only see his tattoo long gone, a smile growing on her lips. Stiles and her glance at each other, high-fiving in excitement. Whilst mutters a happy 'yes' to herself, Stiles starts his engine, "Ah, thank God. I hated it." If Scott wasn't in pure shock before, he for sure was now of his friends sudden behaviour. Feeling Scott's eyes on both of them, they glance up at him, "Sorry." They both mumble in unison.

Hope's smile drops.

She hurt his feelings because of her not liking his tattoo and she didn't like that. She was supposed to be his best friend, supporting his decisions no matter what. Even she said it herself, just before they entered the tattoo parlour. _Great, fan-freaking-tastic,_ Hope sighs heavily as she leans back in her seat and plays with the ends of her flannel.

Stiles starts his jeep and the trio make their way back home in silence. Hope tries to apologise to Scott sincerely but nothing comes out, she felt like a fish out of water. Even just looking at him makes her regret even opening her mouth beforehand. His attention was with what was happening outside the window, passing trees, streetlights. His hand still gently rubbing the spot where his tattoo healed. He really wanted that tattoo, even if she didn't understand why. It was special to him and both, Stiles and her made fun of it. She feels bad about it and she hates that feeling.

Her phone chimes up with a notification from ' _minion rush_ ' she was playing on their way to parlour, she picks up the phone and closes off the message from the game. A small smile tugs at the corners of her lips as she overlooks her wallpaper. It was a photo with her and her boys right began they went to Lydia's first party that they were invited. It feels like that picture was taken ages ago but in reality it's been only few months. It just felt good things were back to normal now – That was until a thought came across her mind.

"Hey, Scott? " She calls out, gaining both of their friends attentions, Scott turns in his seat, so he could look at Hope, "Have you uhm, – have you talked with Allison?" She gulps and breaks an eye contact with Scott.

He goes back in his old position and looks down, "No, we – we agreed to give each other space in the summer. No texts, no calls. . ." he trails off, sorrowful look crossing his features.

"Oh."

Stiles gives her a look of sorry before asking as she quirks an eyebrow at that, "So then how do you know she won't be back at the school then?"

She inhales sharply as she tugs a piece of hair behind her ear. So that's why he gave her that look. They did talk about Allison when she wasn't with them, even when Stiles said they didn't. Hope rolls her shoulders back and crosses her arms.

"After everything that happened," Scott shakes his head as he recalls the memories with Allison. Stiles slows down his jeep to the red light next to animal car, his attention going to the car next to theirs, "I'm not sure that she's coming back."

"I think she is. I'd say pretty definite." Stiles states confidently, both, Scott and Hope turn to him with questioning looks, "You know. Like one hundred percent."

Both of them are still confused of his sudden confidence of Allison's return, if not more than before. Sensing Scott not getting the hint of his alarmed expression, he points at the car next to them. She could tell, Stiles didn't point that for her sake but Scott's. Even if it wasn't for her, she still looks anyways and when she does her mouth opens in a 'o' shape.

The car next to them belongs to the one and only Lydia Martin but that wasn't what takes her off guard but the girl next to her. It was Allison. Smiling and laughing on whatever the two girls were talking about, not aware of her or the guys next to them.

Hope glances at Scott and even from where she was sitting, she could tell it was like he forgot about the world around him, his expression in pure awe. It felt like someone dropped a weight on her heart and she looks away from him and looks back at Allison.

It takes her few seconds but when her eyes meet with the brunette in the other car, even she can feel panic bubbling inside of her. Technically, the last time the two interacted with each other wasn't really amazing or good times. _Well_ , if you don't count Allison trying to hurt her only due to the fact she was trying to save Isaac from getting killed by one of the Argents. If you forget that part, all is good then. No biggie.

"Oh my God," Scott panics, lowering in his seat, in attempt to hide from Allison. Hope glances outside the window and sees Allison doing exactly the same thing. Hope runs her hand through her thick brown hair, and leans back in her seat, "Can we just drive. Please, Stiles." Scott pleads.

"Scott, it's a red light." Stiles points out. It really did feel like universe was playing some sick joke on them. She feels like the red light was mocking Allison and Scott, making them suffer the tension between them. At least Hope could feel that.

"I think we should talk to them." Hope shrugs her shoulders, smirking. She leans forward, almost sitting in between the boys, "You know, we all should welcome her back."

Scott's eyes grow wide in fear, "No, please don't."

"You know what?" Stiles points at Hope, "She's right. I'm going to say something. Say hi–"

"No!" Scott interjects, shaking his head as Stiles lean over to roll a window down as he ignores his friend's protests. Hope giggles at the sight in front of her, "No, Stiles. – No, come on. – Oh my God! Dude! No!"

"Hey!" Stiles shouts and Lydia's car speeds off. Stiles hums in confusion, "You know, they probably didn't see us."

...and finally the red light turns green.

She finds all of this entertaining. You have Scott, in complete panic and then you have Stiles trying to solve everyone's problems and getting a enjoyment out of someone's pain. – Mostly. Hope? She was all of those things above, if she had popcorn, she would be eating it right now despite the situation.

Stiles continues to drive and Lydia's car was in their sight. There technically was no other turns, so driving behind them was the only choice. Scott turns to Stiles, still the same look in his eyes as before. "What are you doing?!"

"Driving?" Stiles answers but it came out more of a question than a statement.

"We're right behind them!" Scott points out, his eyes widening.

"Scott," Hope finally speaks up, "There is literally no other turns." She chuckles.

He turns to look at her and gives her a pointed look. She was enjoying his suffering and not being helpful at all, "Well, I don't want to look like we're following them."

Hope rolls her head back and mumbles ' _oh, my god'_ under her breath. He was making more of a scene than it was supposed. Sure, she wasn't helpful but there was nothing to do. Literally. Besides someone's pain is her gain.

"Well, what do you want me to do?!" Stiles raises his voice, starting to panic himself and Scott putting a pressure on him wasn't helping at all.

"I don't know! Anything!"

Without thinking twice, Stiles slams his foot on jeep's break, making it to abruptly come to a stop. If Hope didn't have a tight grip on both front seats like she did, someone would be responsible for her injuries. She did jerk forwards with much more force than she could control but thankfully Scott reacted fast and his arm shoots out, protecting her from getting hurt.

She could feel her heart beating in her ears from the adrenaline of the sudden impact. Hope holds onto Scott's arm for few seconds, trying to calm herself down and before she sits back up she gives Scott a little squeeze in a _'thank you'_ gesture.

Not knowing what to do next, the jeep sits still with all three teens sitting in a silence. Few moments past by and Lydia's car comes to the stop as well, leaving the trio to wonder what made them stop. Words weren't needed for them to know what they were thinking, it was pretty obvious but that soon changed ad two screams pierce through the air, making the trio alarmed.

In the blink of an eye, Scott and Stiles were out of the jeep, shutting the doors closed. She groans in annoyance of their sign for Hope to stay in the jeep. She steps out, making her way towards Lydia's car, where everyone was standing outside of it. As she walks up to Allison, Lydia, Stiles and Scott, she suddenly stops.

Hope didn't really know what to do and she felt left out. She didn't want to ask if the girls were okay, guys already asked that. Both girls were frightened, that was pretty easy to tell. But asking the questions that were already asked would be pretty pointless and wouldn't help the girls to calm down from the hit. It was good to know they were at least safe and not injured.

She wasn't sure what to do next, so she walks around the car to see what happened. Her hand shoots up to her mouth, loud gasp escaping her mouth as she sees a bloody deer laying on the hood, broken through s windshield.

She hugs her torso, and sofy shakes her head, "Scott..." It comes out barely as a whisper. She didn't expect him to hear it but he did. He heard his name being called out by her. He leaves Allison's side, not without double checking on her first, and walks up to Hope.

Both teens glance at each other and then back to the deer in front of them. She watches as Scott hesitantly places his hand on now dead deer. Hope didn't question him but a thought did come across her mind and she knew it was wrong thing to say but she couldn't help herself, "I guess, a deer did get caught in the headlights.". A nervous laugh escapes her lips. Scott gives her a look, and closes his eyes. Hope looks down at her shoes as she murmurs, "Sorry."

"I saw its eyes right before it hit us. It was like—," Lydia cries out and softly shakes her head, "It was like it was crazy." Lydia cries out, glancing between Hope and Scott.

"No, it was scared," Scott corrects her, "Actually, terrified."

And here she thought, their lives would go back to normal after what happened their Sophomore year but they should've known better than that. It was Beacon Hills after all.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE ::**

*ten centuries later* hello my friends. it has been a while.

last time i updated this story was years ago. im sorry im sorry, it's just, i suck at updating or writing in general but it was quite hard for me to write for hope. even though i love my weird child with all my heart, so yeah that would be one of the reasons why i wasn't updating. (not really i just procrasinate a lot).

anywho.. let me know what you think so far! xx


	3. 02 la douleur exquise

**CHAPTER TWO ::** **la** **douleur exquise**

* * *

 _15 months ago_

* * *

Amelia hums as she makes her way up the stairs towards Hope's room. Her hair's pulled up in a ponytail with a green smoothie in one of her hands and ready to go for a run. But not for a while though because she has duties to take care of. One of those duties includes Hope.

Approaching Hope's room, she knocks twice on her door. No answer. She knocks again. Twice but harder—Still no replies. Hanging head down, she sighs and opens the doors to her room. As expected, the teenager is in a deep sleep, her duvet cover on the floor along with two of the pillows. Then you have Hope with her body spread out across the bed upside down. Amelia has absolutely no idea how the girl could sleep so peacefully with absolutely nothing covering her.

Amelia places the smoothie on Hope's study table and smiles, clapping her hands together loudly, "It's time to wake up!"

Silence.

A wicked smirk makes its way to her lips as she makes her way closer to sleeping girl and starts shaking Hope, "Wake. Up."

Hope groans in frustration, not moving once. She mumbles tiredly, "Five more minutes, please."

Amelia laughs lightly and turns around to the doors, "No way! Up, now."

"Can I just drop out already?" Hope asks rather hopefully.

"Some dreams are meant to be crashed," Amelia notes, resulting in a dramatic whine from Hope. Just as Amelia was about to leave her room, she spins around, her point finger up in the air, "Oh! Almost forgot, Allison and Lydia, are here."

That got Hope moving. Her eyes wide as she sits up straight, "Wait, hold u– " She stops her sentence midway when she notices Amelia was nowhere to be seen. "Allison and Lydia? What?" She whispers to herself as gets out of the bed, not even bothered by the mess around her.

She grabs her phone by the night table and instinctively dials her best friend's number as she makes her way to the closest. The phone kept ringing and ringing which almost made her she almost gives up when on the last call he picks up. "Finally!" She groans.

 _"Sorry, my dad forced me out of my room,"_ Stiles responds back, while Hope grabs a plain white shirt with a black and red flannel, throwing it on the bed.

She stops her pacing and creases brows together, "You didn't _actually_ stay up all night researching deer and car accidents after we finished skyping, right?" When there was no response from her best friend, Hope facepalms, "Stiles!"

 _"Wha– don't blame it on me, it was your idea!"_ He semi yells through the phone as she puts him on the speaker.

"You idiot, I didn't expect you to spend all night researching! I'm doing parts of it in chemistry class cause I don't like chemistry in first place." She explains as she changes her oversized _Batgirl_ pajama top to the white shirt with the flannel and slips into worn out jeans.

 _"If you called me to judge my actions, I'm ending the call right n– "_

"Wait, wait, wait!" She chirps up, and drink a sip of the green smoothie Amelia left for her, "I didn't call to judge you. I called you for a more serious situation." She starts, making Stiles jittery.

 _"Is it about – "_ he draws out, and Hope shakes her head, even though he couldn't see her.

"No! Allison and Lydia are here!" She exhales, biting her nails. Right before Stiles made any remarks, she continues, "I don't know what to do! I don't really hang out with them! I don't really do girly stuff!"

 _"Er, Ellie, you're a girl."_ Stiles states and even if Hope couldn't see him, she could just picture him scrunching up his nose.

Hope rolls her eyes at the obvious statement, "Oh really? It's not like I haven't seen myself naked before —You know what I meant."

 _"Okay, okay, just don't stress."_ He starts and Hope stays quiet, letting Stiles continue, _"Just. . . act cool, and be yourself."_

"Aww thanks, google really does give you amazing motivational speeches," She sarcastically notes, making Stiles groan out of frustration.

 _"I can't deal with you right now, I'm on my way to school, so talk later."_ And with that Stiles ends the call, and Hope sighs dramatically. She was confused and frustrated. She doesn't hang out with the girls in the first place. So why the hell were they at her place?

She quickly takes her backpack before she makes her way downstairs and in the living room, she was met with both of them. Allison looking over the picture frames hanging on the walls and Lydia sitting down on the phone.

"Uh, Hi?" She greats them quite awkwardly. Though Hope didn't mean for it to come out as a question, she still was slightly confused with this entire situation.

At the sound of her voice, both girls turn around to face her while Hope just stands right next to the stairs, swaying on her feet. This certainly wasn't the way she was hoping to start her day.

Lydia sighs and stands up. Allison tried to give her a look, but the strawberry blonde girl didn't notice and Hope bites her lower lip nervously. Allison makes her way to the girl and gives her a hug which Hope reluctantly returned. Lydia, on the other hand, just walks up to them without greeting Hope with a hug but just a small smile. She wasn't one to judge but this whole thing was making her feel super weird and not in a good way. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all about girl power or whatever but why are you guys here?"

They both look at each other and Lydia is the one to gesture towards the confused brunette in from of them and Allison clenched the strap of her bag, "I know we have never been close, but I thought maybe we could change that this year?"

Hope's eyes grew wide as she stares back at Allison, "I-I mean yeah sure. Cool, cool, cool." She nods her head repeatedly as she scans her room, like that, would hold an answer as to why all of this was happening, "So..." Hope exaggerated the "o" awkwardly, "shall we head to school now?"

The teenager has never been more uncomfortable in her life. And trust her, she has gone through many awkward experiences in her life but this takes the cake.

For starters, she was sitting backseat being aware of the whole situation: Allison used to go out with the guy she is currently crushing on, not only that but tried to kill him not long after. On top of that, last time Hope saw Allison was when she threatened to hurt her if she lays a finger on her friends ever again. And then there's Lydia, the girl that her best friend is also currently crushing on. Speaking of which, Hope may or may not has hidden love letters in Lydia's locker that consider long paragraphs from 'Romeo and Juliet'. (Stiles had no idea about any of them, nor was it him writing those letters). Lastly, the deer accident happened last night that they haven't talked about ever since Stiles dropped the girls home.

But hey, at least she got a free ride to school.

"Freshmen." Lydia starts as Allison opens her locker and Hope stands next to her, having a tight grip on the strap of her backpack while swaying back and forth on her feet. "Tons and tons of fresh men."

She looks up, at the same time when Greenberg walks past her and nods in her direction. Her small smile downwards and she pulls a disgusting face at him. While Allison comments on Lydia's sudden new taste in guys, "You mean fresh boys. Lydia, they're fourteen."

"Eh, some are more mature than others." Lydia waves her hand at the comment and both brunettes make an eye contact and laugh.

"You know, it's okay to be single." Allison takes out her notebooks. Hope on the other hand was starting to worry about her friend Isaac, whom was ignoring all her messages ever since last night _, "_ Focus on yourself for a little while, work on becoming a better person."

"Allison, I love you." Lydia sighs and Hope looks up at both of the girls, " So if you need to do that thing where we talk about me and pretend we're not actually talking about you, it's totally fine. – But I don't need a boyfriend. I want a distraction."

However, Hope's attention went elsewhere, she bits her fingertips as she tilts her head to the side to get a better look at the three teenagers passing by the hallway. She wasn't the one to pay attention to people around school but they – they stood out the most. Both girls standing next to her sensed that and turn their focus on them as well, "Brothers?"

"Twins." Lydia hums.

As of no one brought up the other person, her brows crease together at the mysterious girl, walking in between twin brothers. All of them wearing black leather jackets, worn out jeans and carrying motorbike hats. "What about her?" She nods her head towards the girl.

Lydia tilts her head, observing the girl herself, "Huh, maybe one of their flings?"

When Hope was about to give her suggestion, the girl looks her up and down with a small smirk playing on her lips as the twins make an eye contact. Hope rubs the back of her neck, the uneasy feeling of all three of them communicating in their own way about her didn't make her feel all that comfortable. Allison closes her locker and was about to start making her way to the class when Hope's eyes grew wide and realization settled in, "Oh, my Gosh!" she whispers.

"What's wrong?" Allison asks as she turns around, worry crossing her features.

"That girl!" She points at no one particular, wide-eyed. "She was at the tattoo shop last night. Before the deer accident, she was at the tattoo shop! She gave me the same look."

Lydia raises her brows at the girl's freak out, and chuckles softly, "And? That girl could just totally be into you."

"Yeah, it could be just a coincidence." Allison shrugs her shoulders, and moves around, going behind Hope to drag her to class as she starts to realize she won't move.

"Is anything in Beacon Hills just a coincidence these days? No." Hope complains, pointing a finger up for more dramatic effect, "This is weird. I didn't like the way she looked at me. Those twins as well!" Allison keeps on dragging Hope to the class as she laughs at the brunette while Lydia follows the lead.

Lydia abruptly stops and spins around as she claps her hands. While Allison still has her hands on Hope's shoulders as she nods. "Hope, I'm saying this as a friend, you're overreacting."

Hope looks back and forth between both girls, and tangles herself away from them, waving her hands melodramatically, "I'm not overreacting, you guys are!"

With that, Hope turns around and walks inside the class, both girls following her away while shaking heads at her. She didn't wait for them as she wants faster get away with them. Approaching her seat, in front of Stiles, she sits down as she drops her bag. She feels a tap on her shoulder and she looks back to only find Stiles leaning over his table, "So?"

She quirks an eyebrow, "So what?"

" _So_ how was your morning with them?" He elaborates further, rolling his eyes.

Hope groans and turns out in her chair to full face her best friend, "Miserable!" She shakes her head, "Actually felt like living hell."

Stiles blinks at her, eyes scanning her face for answers, "I'm not sure, whether you're being serious or just sarcastic."

"Meh, it's up to you to decide that." She dismisses him, only find her face drop seeing the same girl from the tattoo shop, sitting in front of her. That seat usually was vacated by Greenburg. Actually, it was his seat. She turns to Lydia, a seat next to Stiles' and whispers, "Still think it's a coincidence?"

The strawberry blonde gives her a pointed look, making the brunette slug her shoulders down and lower in her seat, playing with the piece of fabric from her flannel. She glances up at the girl again, and then back to her hands. It could be just a coincidence after all. She's just not used to seeing the same person everywhere all of the sudden – two days in the row to be more specific. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and she takes it out.

 **FROM: (555) 555 - 3476**

 _The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth, flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness._

Another voice enters the room, reading out the text she just received, the teenage girl looks up at the unknown woman in front of them, "This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will receive in this class." The teacher warns the class, Scott and Hope look at each other with questionable looks, "Phones off, everyone."

She slowly puts down the phone and leaves it in her bag, bringing her attention back to class. Considering no one knew who their new teacher was or who they were, everyone had to introduce themselves. Mrs. Blake, the English teacher, seemed very kind with the way she was handling everyone's behaviors. Some weren't all that welcoming and some were just over the top welcoming. There was no in between.

She had her fingers crossed and she could say with confidence that the new teacher liked her. Which meant more possibility of her getting good grades for once, and not disappointing Aunt Amelia. So things are working out great for once. Plus _Hearts of Darkness_ by Joseph Conrad, the book they're reading this semester, didn't look all that hard either.

"Hey, Lydia!" Stiles whispers, not so quietly as that gained Hope's attention and she glances at both of them, "What is that? Is that from the accident?" He asks, looking down at Lydia's ankles.

She follows his gaze and sees a bandage wrapped around Lydia's ankle. Hope bites her lower lip and thinks back to the accident last night. She couldn't remember much from the ride home but she didn't see anything on her ankles, so this must be before or after the incident. Lydia, on the other hand, didn't seem to react to Stiles' comment as she simply states, "No. Prada bit me."

She spins around in her chair, and her eyebrows crease together, "Your own dog?"

"No, my designer handbag." Sarcasm drips from her tone and Hope squints her eyes while Stiles gives Lydia a pointed look. Seeing as both teenagers didn't get the hint, she rolls her eyes and confirms, "Yes, _my_ dog."

Hope opens her mouth to give a sarcastic comment back but she didn't have a chance to as Stiles wonders, "Has it ever bitten you before?"

Lydia looks down at her pen and then back up at them, only to shake her head. "Okay. What if it's like the same thing as the deer?" Stiles questions, waving his hands around, only to leave both girls confused. "Ya know, like, how animals start acting weird right before an earthquake or something?"

"Meaning what? That there's gonna be an earthquake?"

"Or _something_. I just –," He sighs out of frustration, not being able to figure out the reasoning behind all of this, plus the girls didn't help with them not listening to him. " Maybe it means something's coming. Something bad."

Hope rolls her head back and gives a look to her best friend. She was all about badass adventures but this just seemed sad and ridiculous, "Dude, it was just a deer and a dog. So what?"

Lydia dazes off in her thoughts as she tilts her head, "What's that thing you say about threes; once, twice..."

A big thud on the window interrupts the class. Everyone's attention snapping to where the sound came from, only to find a splotch of blood from a black feathered bird. Hope glances at her best friend in a weary way, to only bring her attention back to the window. Her eyes grow wide as she sees a flock of birds flying towards their class. She throws her hands over her mouth in shock, as a small gasp escapes her lips.

Another bird smacks against the window leaving a crack. She jumps a bit in her seat as the window cracks open with the next bird flying. The crack made the rest fly through, leaving class in fear. Students, hid under the tables, some waving hands around to protect them and others shielding each other. Mrs. Blake shouts for everyone to get down repeatedly while Hope tries to fight off the black feathered birds in her seat, whimpering as their sharp claws scratch her skin. She feels a hand wrap around the wrist pulling her down beside her table. Someone shields her from the madness around them.

Minutes later, that really felt like hours the person covering her lets her go. As she stands up straight, her body still shaking only to find out the birds lying dead on the floor. She turns to see who it was to protect her only to find it is the girl from the tattoo shop. In other situations, she would've bombed her with questions but as of now she just gave a small smile in thank you, where the other girl nods in response. Stiles approaches his best friend, still holding onto Lydia, whom was shaken up as Hope was. Noticing Stiles, she wraps him in a hug, asking the same question over and over again, "What just happened? What just happened?"

Stiles wasn't sure himself as of what just happened, so in return, all he did was rub her back in comfort. She breaks the hug, and concern washes over her as she remembers Lydia was next to her, and she turns to her, only to see Lydia and Allison embracing each other in a hug as well. She walks up to both girls and questions whether they are okay and gives them a comforting hug in return.

After a while, police and paramedics showed up along with student parents. Hope didn't call Amelia, due to the fact she would be worried sick and she didn't want that so she made up a lie that the school got canceled because of an unknown accident that students weren't allowed to know. Hope calmed down after few minutes and now was sitting on the table, swaying her legs and humming to _21 guns_ by _Green Day._ While Stiles sat on his phone, playing a game.

Sheriff Stilinski moves past them towards the Argents whispering among themselves. She bumps her elbow to Stiles' side, he gives her a glare only to see her nodding towards his dad and the Argents. "Mr. Argent, you wouldn't have any insight into this, would you?"

"Me?" Mr. Argent looks taken back by his question.

"Yeah." Sheriff Stilinski confirms, "All this bizarre animal behavior, it's...You must seen something like this before, right?"

Him and Allison man an eye contact, he stands up more straight and takes an unnoticed small step back, "Not sure why I would or why you would think I would."

"I'm sorry. I could have sworn I overheard my son talking with his best friend about how you were an experienced hunter." Sheriff nods at both teenagers sitting at the table eavesdropping.

Both of them suddenly try to act cool, with Hope grabbing Stiles phone and pointing at it with her index finger. He tries to act along and starts nodding dramatically at the calculator.

Hope nudges Stiles and points at the door, both knowing exactly what to do next. Within the next second both teenagers bold for the doors, to get out of the trouble as soon as possible, (Trying their best to go unnoticed, but failed miserably as Stiles trips over his own feet and the brunette falls on the floor with him).

After recovering, Stiles grabs his phone and dials Scott's number as they make their way to Stiles' jeep. "We got a serious problem at school." He starts off straight away and puts it on the speaker so Hope can hear as well, "Ms. Blake's class –"

 _"Hey, can you tell me about it later?"_ Scott interrupts as both of them jump in the jeep.

"Uh, well, no." Stiles shakes his head even though Scott couldn't see him, "Pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion."

Scott sighs on the other end, _"Alright, then. Meet me at Derek's."_

Her eyes grow wide at mentioning of a guy she didn't think she would hear ever again. She grabs Stiles' phone and asks, "Woah, what?! Derek's house? What the hell are you–"

 _"Just meet us at Derek's, okay?"_ With that he hangs up, leaving both of them stunned. It wasn't the fact he hangs up but it was because he was at Derek's old place. With _him_.

They didn't ask any other questions and just made their way to Derek's. They had enough questions to ask from today.

"Yeah, I see it." Derek flashes his crimson red eyes around Scott's bicep, "It's two bands, right?"

Besides Scott stands Stiles and Hope with crossed arms as he hums in response. Derek looks up to Scott and wonders, "What does it mean?"

"I don't know," Scott shrugs his shoulders weakly, knowing Scott for that long he knew what it meant. He was too insecure to say it out loud in front of everyone, "It's just something I traced with my fingers."

Scott traces it on the dusted table, two bands, as all eyes went down to the small dusted bands, "Why is this so important to you?" Derek asks, wondering the same thing that Hope and Stiles did.

"Do you know what the word 'tattoo' means?" Scott questions him.

Stiles leans down a little towards Derek and says with a proud smile, "To mark something."

Hope facepalms and shakes her head at his obvious answer, "Well, that's in Tahitian." Scott corrects Stiles, "In Samoan, it means 'open wound'. I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned eighteen – I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."

"For what?" Derek raises his brow in curiosity while Hope was dreading the answer. Her gut feeling knows what he's going to say and she didn't want to hear it.

"For not calling or texting Allison all summer." Scott finally admits while Hope looks down as she nods her head to herself, her chest heaving more than before, "Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes. I was trying to give her the space she wants. –Going four months later, it still hurts. It still feels like a ..." Scott trails off.

"Like uh o-open," Her voice cracks and she coughs, trying to play it off with rubbing the back of her neck and looking away, "Like an open wound." She finishes for him.

He nods and looks down, not being aware of Hope's reaction, "Yeah."

Even if Scott didn't notice, the others did. Stiles and Derek glance at Hope until she brushes it off and rolls her shoulders back. Noticing the gesture, Derek sighs and grabs a blow torch and warns, "The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt."

"Oh, that's great." Stiles sarcastically notices as Hope fake laughs.

"Do it." Scott says with a slight confidence when all you could see is fear in his eyes from the coming pain.

Derek lights the blow torch and both standing teenagers, back up a step, "Oh wow. That's a lot for us. So We're gonna take that as our cue– "

Hope keeps on nodding her head rapidly while trying to push Stiles to leave, "Oh would you look at that, we might just leave and wait outside. Yup, sounds like a solid plan."

They both start to make their way out, until Derek's hand reaches out in front of Stiles, making Hope run into her best friend, "Nope. You both can help hold him down."

"But we don't want to!" Hope whines, as Derek pushes them back, making them trip again.

Both walk around, grabbing each shoulder and glancing at Derek, signaling that they're ready. As Derek moves the blow torch closer to Scott's bicep, she looks away as both say in unison, "Oh, my God!"

Derek applies the torch to Scott's arm and it begins to sear and burn his arm. He starts to grunt in pain, as Derek glances at Stiles and Hope, "Hold him!"

"Thanks for heads up, Captain Obvious!" Hope comments with sarcasm as she tries to hold down a supernatural creature without supernatural strength, "We're trying!"

Scott's eyes turn yellow and his fangs come out as he screams in pain. Not long after he loses his consciousness and both teenagers back away. She walks away from Stiles and Derek and makes her way to the burned down living room. She walks up to sleeping Isaac on the table and grabs his hand.

She sits down in one of the chairs and looks up at him. When she arrived at Derek's, she wasn't expecting Isaac passed out laying on the table. She felt a bit relieved knowing he was somewhere that she knew he would be safe. However, she still was concerned as to why he was there and what happened to him. They were just watching movies together before Scott and Stiles picked her up to get Scott's tattoo. That was the last time she saw him and now he got himself in trouble from God knows what. Plus, Derek and Scott not answering her questions didn't help either.

"You better wake up!" She tells him as she squeezes his hand. Hope was aware he couldn't hear her but she just needs to say it out loud, "For the record when I said you'll get yourself in trouble with that attitude of yours, I didn't mean it quite literally. You know I was just messing, right?"

She smiles weakly and squeezes his hand again. She looks down at her feet and whispers, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. .It's my fault."

"It's not your fault." Derek disagrees, Hope, jumps at the sudden voice and looks up to see him with crossed arms over his chest. "How is it your fault?"

She releases Isaac's hand from her hold and stands up, looking at his sleeping body, "I-I don't know. I just – I jinxed it."

"You didn't know it would happen. So don't blame yourself. Isaac would tell you the same thing." He assures her, she tries to nod but couldn't, "Hope, It's not your fault. This is on me. What happened wasn't because of you. This is my responsibility and my mistake to fix."

She looks up to Derek and makes her way towards him, "Right, let's just make this easier on both of us then. Let's not blame it on each other but blame it on whatever happened." She squeezes her eyes at Derek, trying to pursue him into telling more what happened but he didn't break. Her shoulders fall at that in disappointment, "Come on buddy, let's wait for Scott to wake up then."

As soon as they walked in, Scott wakes up with a gasp sweating. He looks down at his tattoo and then back to his friends, "It worked."

"Finally!" Hope comments with joy, she throws his shirt towards Scott with a smile, "Now let's go! I'm hungry."

He puts his shirt on and stands up, Stiles clapping his hands on his back, "Well, it looks pretty damn permanent now."

"Yeah," Scott agrees and rolls down his sleeve, "I kind of needed something permanent – "

"Yeah cause that's going to be the only thing permanent in your life." Hope jokes, interrupting Scott, only to receive not amused looks in return, "Too soon? Sorry – Yeah carry on."

"Ellie. . ." Scott warns and she shrugs her shoulders, "Everything that's happened to us, everything just changes so fast. Everything's so . . . Ephemeral."

"Ephemeral? What?" She whispers to herself, boys not paying attention to her as she follows them behind.

"Studying for the PSATs?" Stiles wonders surprisingly as Hope catches up with them.

"Yep."

"Nice."

Scott opens the doors and studies the door in wonder, "You painted the door. Why'd you paint the door?"

"Go home, Scott," Derek warns and she tilts her head in question.

"And why only one side?" He asks more to himself than anyone else and she crosses her arms over her chest. Derek calls out his name again and walks up to him, only to Scott clawing out the new coat of paint off from the doors, only to, later on, reveal the spiral symbol. "The birds at school and the deer last night, just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by an Alpha." Scott pieces everything as Hope nods along starting to think the same, "How many are there?"

Derek looks down and heavily sighs, " A whole pack of them. An Alpha pack."

Hope steps forwards and blinks repeatedly. She knows what she heard, but she wanted to hear again cause clearly, she wanted to be wrong. "I'm sorry what now?"

"All of them? How does that even work?" Stiles questions the same thing they all were thinking.

"I hear there's some kind of a leader," Derek says, making an eye contact with everyone. "He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac and I have been looking for months for them for the last four months."

She closes her eyes at the mention of Isaac's name and steps back. All this summer that she spent with him, he didn't say a word to her even when she asked about it. She's seriously going to have a word with him when he wakes up, "Let's say you find them. How do you deal with an Alpha pack?" Scott asks as he steps forwards.

"With all the help I can get," Derek admits and Hope starts to roll up her sleeves ready to fight everyone and anything.

"Where is she?" Her eyes and head snaps to the voice she hasn't heard in hours, "Where's the girl?"

They all make an eye contact with each other and her brows crease together.

"What girl?"

* * *

 **[** **author's note** **]**

 **word count:** 5240

not edited.

woooah, another update for still into you? that's wild. im wilding wooo. i'm sorry this is too long, there was no way of me shortening this. i just wanted to finish the rest of the episode in one chapter.

poor hope, she really doesn't deserve this. #hopedeservesbetter ... oh shit wait a minute im writing this and planning all of this pain. whoops my bad. didn't mean to.

anyways, let me know what you think of this so far, as of im trying to get back to writing.


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